Intellijel uScale - Why so Hard to Use?

[Spartacus]

I used the eowave attenuator Poles and found it helpful with both the Scales and the Doepfer Quantizer A-156

[_menagerie_]

I used the eowave attenuator Poles and found it helpful with both the Scales and the Doepfer Quantizer A-156

Thanks, will check it out!

Would something like the Doepfer A-149-2 have the same effect? I imagine it's the offset function which is the important part for controlling the random CV before being handled by the uScale?

[L.C.O.]

The fact remains, that the manual for uScale is lame.
It isn't even for the current hardware!

I have been waiting for a promised uScale firmware update for many months now, and currently consider selling it, because it seems that the update will simply never materialize.

Penrose quantizer is what will replace it in my system. And for the price of one uScale, i can buy 3 Penrose quantizer DIY kits...

[Dcramer]

I'm still using my uScale and really like the extra functions but still need the manual to remember the button pushes.
Being able to program in user scales and switch through them is awesome!
Any kind of attenuator with offset will work: Triatt, SISM, Doepfer. You just need to be able to reduce the CV range to a few octaves at most and keep the CV above zero voltages.

[gonkulator]

Also, CVP, INVY, WMD SPO. You want attenuation and offset.

[_menagerie_]

Thanks everyone! Much appreciated.

[Funkydroid]

Also, CVP, INVY, WMD SPO. You want attenuation and offset.

does uVCA 2 by Intellijel do these things as well?

[mutate]

I struggle with understanding the manual. This would be a good one for a video by DivKid ben_hex.

[gonkulator]

Also, CVP, INVY, WMD SPO. You want attenuation and offset.

does uVCA 2 by Intellijel do these things as well?

I suppose any linear VCA with bias and attenuation should work (right?) Might be an interesting way to vary your range of notes.

[calaveras]

for a long time I just mashed most of the buttons down so all it was doing was making the pitches land on a valid note interval. Then I got into using scales.
Works okay at that.
Then I tried using the shift and B out. Uh, no. That is just never working the way you want it.

[junkyard_kahrs]

Made a short video about my struggle with the uScale module, the A & B outputs and how they are created:

[timoka]

junkyard_kahrs
that's a very good first post, thanks for this. i bet alot of uscale user first scrached their head when trying to dial in the right interval!
i too find it very strange that they didn't just use the keyboard reference for the interval...it seems so obvious

[f33d]

junkyard_kahrs - yeah thanks! I get it better now.
also a bump because we are still waiting - don't let us forgotten uScale lovers in the rain Intellijel.
I have to set my fav. scale & root note everytime I power it on again - sucks.
OK no biggie if the scale was saved to load it up again - still it is not the only thing I have to set up after powering on the modular - those tiny things aggregate.
- so I am waiting for an (auto)save function of the last used scale incl. the root note used in the new uScale-Firmware.
As far as I can remember it was planned....?

[Hallmar]

I had nothing to do with the uScale, and I don't know if those kludges are "legit" but I did want to just mention one fact about manufacturing modules:

There are kludges on lots of production modules. Sometimes, despite your best efforts, you discover a bug (or a minor improvement) after several hundred units have been manufactured and are basically ready to ship. So, given the choice of scrapping production units that have cost you tens of thousands of dollars or putting a wire on somewhere, you put the wire on. Hopefully, it goes on in a way that isn't too obvious or flimsy.

I strongly agree.

I work(ed) as an electronic technician for a 6 month stit for a company that maintains and installs all kinds of naval electronic equipment(Sonar, Radar, depth sensors, current sensors and so forth) and the main manufacturer(Furuno) would often have these wires between solder pads on their products. And those are professional products that cost thousands of dollars.

So this is very common practice and it's OK, but of course not preferable to not having a wire across the PCB.

[Dcramer]

Made a short video about my struggle with the uScale module, the A & B outputs and how they are created:

Good video

Yes, you're correct. Infact you can pick a transpose offset of +1 or -1 but you can't actually pick unison.
And as you point out, the transpose can be before or after the quantize scale or chromatic.
Reading the original manual could make your eyes bleed trying to understand the language used to describe the different ways you can use output B.
Of course it gets crazier once your using the CV whose target can be A or B or both.

But of course this makes for a flexible system, it simply needs a few simple updates (sure wish it had triggers like the Doepfer) and a much clearer manual!

[giftculture]

Made a short video about my struggle with the uScale module, the A & B outputs and how they are created:

Awesome post! This module suddenly makes more sense to me now! I wish it had an updated manual, the existing manual is almost impossible for my brain to parse, for some reason....

[L.C.O.]

{...}
- so I am waiting for an (auto)save function of the last used scale incl. the root note used in the new uScale-Firmware.
As far as I can remember it was planned....?

Not sure if it was "planned"...
Some hints were dropped here and there, many months ago.

But it has not materialized, and my sense is that it will not happen (due to too many hardware versions of uScale floating in the user base.)

So, I would say: don't hold your breath.

[tuj]

I use the V1. Don't know shit about how to use any of it, except how to program a live scale. That works just fine.

[junkyard_kahrs]

Here's another one, this time talking about the shift feature of the uScale II

[drxcm]

Superb videos and first posts junkyard_kahrs!

[chysn]

Thanks, junkyard! Those were nice explanations, and brought a lot of clarity to these functions.

I understand your frustration about the "keyboard" functioning as an ordinal number of steps and not a keyboard when setting the B interval; however, that's really the only way it can work, since many of the notes would have no meaning in diatonic mode if it still behaved like a keyboard. It's easy enough to adjust my thinking when setting an interval.

The inability to set unison as an interval is somewhat of an annoyance, but one of my favorite µScale tricks is to shift only the B output to produce counterpoint intervals. When I do this, I set the scale shift to diatonic, the B mode to chromatic, the B interval to 1, and then I shift the second oscillator down 1/2 step so that the B output is unison when shift is 0v.

If you take video requests, it would be amazing to have such a tutorial on saving and loading scales. I've never used that feature of my µScale, only entering my scales on-the-fly. Part of the reason is that it's easy enough just to dial in the notes. But also, I just haven't had the patience for it.

Despite its quirks, µScale is one of my favorite modules.

[565]

Here's another one, this time talking about the shift feature of the uScale II

Mind blown junkyard_kahrs!
I've had my µScale for over a year, and I never had the patience to figure out the shift modes. Kudos and thanks!

[grep]

Wow. This has lowered my desire to own this module.

[Dcramer]

Thanks, junkyard! Those were nice explanations, and brought a lot of clarity to these functions.

I understand your frustration about the "keyboard" functioning as an ordinal number of steps and not a keyboard when setting the B interval; however, that's really the only way it can work, since many of the notes would have no meaning in diatonic mode if it still behaved like a keyboard. It's easy enough to adjust my thinking when setting an interval.

The inability to set unison as an interval is somewhat of an annoyance, but one of my favorite µScale tricks is to shift only the B output to produce counterpoint intervals. When I do this, I set the scale shift to diatonic, the B mode to chromatic, the B interval to 1, and then I shift the second oscillator down 1/2 step so that the B output is unison when shift is 0v.

If you take video requests, it would be amazing to have such a tutorial on saving and loading scales. I've never used that feature of my µScale, only entering my scales on-the-fly. Part of the reason is that it's easy enough just to dial in the notes. But also, I just haven't had the patience for it.

Despite its quirks, µScale is one of my favorite modules.

Believe it or not, creating, saving, and using CV to change through a bank of user scales is really easy on this thing

If you can understand the crazy assignments for output B, you can do the user scales no prob.

Just remember, you must save your work to rom before you power down!

[chysn]

using CV to change through a bank of user scales is really easy on this thing

Woah. I didn't even know that was an option. Back to the lab!

This has lowered my desire to own this module.

For me, even its simplest use case (giving it 1v/oct and choosing which notes are in the scale) is worth the price of admission. Nothing else does that, as far as I know, and I'd probably be disappointed with any other quantizer.